


Into The White

by mydeira



Category: Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-26
Updated: 2012-10-26
Packaged: 2017-11-17 02:11:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/546485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mydeira/pseuds/mydeira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It beat the alternative.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into The White

**Author's Note:**

> Set after "Exit Wounds" for Torchwood and Doctor Who Big Finish Audio 101 "Absolution".

It wasn’t dark. That was a distinct improvement over the first time. Though maybe if he were here long enough, Owen decided that never ending white might be just as disconcerting. But right now, he’d take light over dark. There was something imminently less terrifying about light.

“Owen Harper?”

Owen very nearly jumped out of his skin, or at least what passed for it in this place. It felt like he had a body. Glancing down, he saw that he did indeed have a body. On a whim he pinched his arm.

“It hurts!” And he was entirely too excited by that prospect. He did it again and laughed. “It really hurts!”

“Most of the people I’ve met tend to avoid that sort of thing,” a dry voice observed behind him.

Right, not alone. Owen turned and found himself face to face with a tall, grayish, almost reptilian looking man. Better than a Weevil, he supposed. And much better than some unknown looming in the darkness with him.

“Well, if you’d just spent the last several weeks as the walking dead, you’d be glad to feel anything.” He had a heartbeat and was breathing and—he felt under his shirt—no disgusting bullet hole. This just got better and better. Even if it was nothing more than a psychic projection, who the fuck cared?

“While time has no meaning here, do you think you’re going to be long?” his companion inquired, sounding neither put out or annoyed. In fact the bloke reminded Owen of Ianto, minus the eyebrows. “I can come back.”

Even in the light being alone still wasn’t appealing. “No, don’t go.” He forced his hands down to his sides. “It’s been a weird go of it lately. Dying, coming back and…well, I’m not certain what happened. I guess getting nuked.” Glancing around, he smirked. “Looked quite a bit like this actually.” Maybe he was still there and this was all some kind of dying dream. Or maybe he had been dreaming all along. Everything that had happened or was happening was just some fantasy his brain cooked up while he lay bleeding out on the pavement. “I should have stayed away from that Life on Mars marathon. Bloody television.”

“Charlotte was fond of television. I never understood the appeal myself.” The man seemed a million miles away. And then he was back, staring intently at Owen. “My name is C’rizz. I should have told you that when I first arrived.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not exactly the king of manners. King of the Weevils, maybe.”

“What?”

“Doesn’t matter. So,” Owen drawled, “what is this place?”

“It’s not really a place. It’s not really anything.”

“It’s a dream.”

“No.”

“I’m nowhere, then.”

“No, this is somewhere.”

“If it’s not a place and it’s not anything, it’s got to be nowhere.”

“You can’t be nowhere. At least that’s what the Doctor would tell Charlotte. If you’re there, that makes it somewhere.” C’rizz’ voice had taken on a very different, very cultured tone. Then he was back to normal. “It was one of the few things he said that actually made sense.” 

Owen was getting frustrated. He’d had more than enough frustration to last him, thank you very much. “Okay, so we’re somewhere. And that is where?”

“It’s not.”

“Okay, fine. So this somewhere than isn’t anywhere or anything…what the hell is it?”

C’rizz seemed unfazed. “I believe in your universe it’s most commonly called Limbo.”

“I’m in bloody Limbo?”

“No, just Limbo.” If Owen wasn’t mistaken, there was the barest hint of a smile from C’rizz at that.

“So I am nowhere.”

“No, you’re somewhere.”

“And you’re annoying. Why the hell are you here?”

“Because there wasn’t anywhere else for me. This isn’t my universe. So when I died I couldn’t go where I was supposed to.”

“Which is?”

“Back to the beginning.”

“So this is where all the poor sods the universe doesn’t know what to do with end up. Brilliant.”

“I’ve been to worse places.”

“So have I.” This was imminently preferable to the alternative. Still, there wasn’t much to it, was there? “What does a body do up here, anyway?”

“Wait.”

“For?”

C’rizz shrugged. “I think I’m here to greet people.”

“You think?”

“Well, I have yet to find anyone in charge, and since I keep bumping into people who seem newly arrived, all I can do is assume that’s what I’m here for.”

“Or you could just be lucky.”

“It’s possible.”

Owen had had enough of that kind of luck. “Where are these other people, are they just wandering about?”

“Some are. Other linger until they move on. In either case, I don’t see them again.” C’rizz glanced off into the distance. If there was distance here. “No, that’s not true. I do see some again. Charlotte has shown up a few times, though it’s always like the first time for her. Then there’s Jack.”

“Jack? As in Jack Harkness?”

C’rizz’ eyes narrowed. “You know him.”

“Worked for him for a few years. And I guess I’m here because of him. I was dead, then he brought me back. Then I got nuked. And since you can’t kill a dead man, I suppose that’s why I’m here.”

“Is he always so…friendly.”

Owen laughed. “Oh, yeah.”

“Wonderful.” He didn’t sound pleased.

“Not impressed by the dashing captain?”

“I was amused. Now it’s getting annoying. He won’t give up.”

“Jack is persistent.”

“I admire persistent,” C’rizz grudged, “but with as often as I see him…it’s gotten old fast. At least he remembers me now. The first couple hundred times, with every one being the first time for him…” He rolled his eyes, then did a dead on impression of Jack. “Captain Jack Harkness, and you are?”

“Yeah, that loses its charm after awhile.” Owen smirked. “At least he’s going to get one hell of a surprise the next time he shows up.”

“You probably won’t see him.”

“Oh, I will. I have a feeling I’m going to be around here for a bit.” He rubbed his hands together. Whole, unblemished, unbroken. “You might as well show me around.”

“Show you around? There’s nothing to see, if you haven’t noticed.”

“Humor me.”

C’rizz considered it for a moment, then nodded. “Can’t hurt I suppose.”

“And I can give you plenty of dirt to throw Jack off his game the next time he shows up.”

“I’ve had worse offers.” C’rizz smiled and headed off in the white.

Owen had a feeling he was really going to like it here.


End file.
